Building Resilience for Climate in Coastal Settlements in the Gambia: A Project Proposal for Problem-Solving

Abstract

This project essay discusses the climate problems of the Gambia, the smiling coast of Africa and the various damages these are causing the ecological environments, especially in the coastal settlement areas. Such damages have resulted in the worsening degradations that have brought untold hardships that have unleashed hunger and starvation on the people, including farm and fishing sites that have been washed ashore, leaving the rural people to be more vulnerable in the future, should steps not be taken to curtail the surge. The essay looks critically into necessary modalities for these steps and what the government can/ought to do to fight the menace and increase food production for food security, since, the greater percentage of the rural population that is more affected are into farming; the mainstay of the nation’s economy. The paper sees the need for cooperation between the nation’s government and existing governance institutions resident in the country like the European Union for a project development that can be put up as resilience for climate in coastal settlements of the Gambia towards realization of a sustainable socio-economic, ecological and political growth and development. This compels the authors to put this into project perspective and costing that can become a reality within the range of twenty million euro, through mutual cooperation and synergy between the Gambian government and the European Union office in the Gambia. Through this project, a memorandum of understanding is agreed upon by the parties to undertake interventionist program as corrective measures against the odds and consequences of climate change in the coastal and marine zones of the country for project implementation/execution.Available literature and fact-finding information from both the government institutions concerned, the EU office and other concerned partners (public and private) as well as archives and scholarly journals and texts are consulted for data gathering and analysis, using descriptive and prescriptive methods for interpretational analyses that are value-free. The essay crops suggestive measures for broad project implementation and realization as well as over-arching problem-solving institutional approach project, presumed acceptable to both parties in practical situations.

Keywords: Project, Resilience, Climate Change, Coastal and marine Settlements and Budget